Opinions of Monday, 3 February 2014

Columnist: Damptey, Daniel Danquah

Rawlings is the greatest demagogue alive today

. Jaguar Joker Rawlings (Mr Recklessness) is the greatest demagogue alive today


History has a way of bringing out a demagogue once in a while. It was therefore no accident that Hitler, Mussolini, Iddi Amin, Samuel Doe, Sanni Abacha, Jaguar Joker Rawlings and many others came to superintendent over the destinies of their respective countries.
The irresponsible utterances on President Kufuor by an over ambitious and self deluded dictator whose sunlight is at its lowest ebb should not go unchallenged. The accuser, Jerry John Rawlings, hereby renamed Jaguar Joker Recklessness, who has looted a lot of state assets, is being haunted by the atrocities he has perpetrated against God and mankind.
Mr Recklessness (Rawlings) is qualified to be referred to as a heartless wealthy rogue whose conscience has no human feelings. His callousness, inhumanity and depravity know no bounds. It will not be out of place to state that Jaguar Joker Rawlings (Mr Recklessness) is a core member of a gang of looting millionaires’ armed robbers which his ill-fated 19 years maladministration created. One cannot separate his character from greed and sheer arrogance. Under him, Law and Order completely broke down and the country slide into a state of anarchy. His hands are tainted with too much blood which could only be cleansed if he showed remorse and asked his Maker for forgiveness.
This gangster of Jaguar Joker Recklessness (Mr Rawlings) whose life began as a “dabi dabi a ebeye yiye” (it will be well in future) is now wallowing in wealth, oblivious of the suffering of the masses. He has accused former President Kufuor of being an ‘autocratic thief’ who stole massively from state coffers during his two term tenure in office. He claims it is his responsibility to drive this message home otherwise former President Kufuor will use his ill gotten wealth to redeem his image.
Fellow Ghanaians, you have all heard the reckless antics of a heartless sadist called Mr Rawlings. He is yet to realize the kind of havoc he wrecked on the country during his 19 years of unmeritorious adventure. He still thinks of himself as being relevant to the political destiny of the country. He has a predilection for mischief.
But let us be candid to ourselves. Between the two of them, Rawlings (Mr Recklessness) and Kufuor, who is a thief? Those of us who are alive and endured the horrendous experience at the hands of this sadist and brigands will tell the story the way it is. We are not “mumus”, neither have we just arrive at the political scene. We were there before this “dabi dabi a ebeye yie” unleashed his misadventure on the peace loving people of the country.
This “dabi dabi a ebeye yiye” has been over enthusiastic in acquisition of state property within a short time. He ensured that the masses of people remained illiterate and poverty stricken so that he (Mr Recklessness) and his gang of nation wreckers would have an opportunity to keep Ghanaians in a state of servitude in order to dictate to us the type and standard of living we should fellow so as to ridicule all Ghanaians. Unlike Mr Kufuor, Rawlings has remained adamant to the sufferings of the people he claims he had come to liberate. Not a single economic measure was put in place by his government to solve their problems.
If Kufuor is an autocratic thief who stole massively from state coffer, Rawlings (Mr Recklessness) is a deified armed bandit and money juggler who did not steal from state coffers alone but intimidated the already impoverished masses to give up the last pesewa they had. He has obsessively acquired physical assets and stockpiled money in complete disregard of his own mantra when he forced himself into the political arena of the country. Rawlings (Mr Recklessness) who was once a sheep has mutated to become a ravening wolf. His so called admirers are made up of entrapped men and women who are so deceived that they have become willing accomplices in their own exploitation. They have been indoctrinated into pandering to the need and greed of people that are supposed to give inspirational leadership. So Jaguar Joker Rawlings (Mr Recklessness) has become great and rich at the expense of the people who increasingly grow timid and dependent on their captor (Mr Recklessness).
It must be pointed out that the then malnourished and impoverished Jaguar Joker Rawlings had cut a poor image for himself in the military. He was a pathetic figure, a walking dead who only lived for the day. In 1978, he travelled to Pakistan to attend an Officers Course and collected foreign exchange from the Paymaster’ General’s Office. He never accounted for the money on his return; neither did he pay back the excess into chest.
The course however did not hold and instead of returning to the country, he travelled to the United Kingdom to see whether he could establish contact with his father. The Senior Rawlings gave him a cold shoulder and Mr Recklessness came back to Ghana a broken man. He had no money on him and so could not pay back the money he had collected. The Paymaster General’s office then started to make monthly deductions from his salary
When a lion is hungry, it thinks only of how to get a fellow animal for food. Yes, was the mantra of Rawlings in those days. The fraudster that he was and still is, he “commandeered” a Datsun Saloon Car belonging to his wife’s friend, Sathi Punjabi and told the military authority that he had bought the car for Four Thousand Cedis. The Military Command prepared a cheque to cover such an amount. What is more fraudulent than this?
Ghanaians have not forgotten the bribe he collected from the Nigerian Government to white wash the rapacious Abacha’s brutal regime. At a time when most countries, especially those from Sub Saharan region had made Nigeria a pariah country, Rawlings was the only Head of State who pleaded for understanding for Nigeria. General Sanni Abacha had laid siege on the door post of every opposition leader in Nigeria. The rest of the World felt ostracism was the only measure that could bring the cruel and illegal Abacha’s government to its knees. Rawlings was on record of suggesting understanding as a means to the political impasse in nearby Nigeria. Was this the Rawlings who claimed to be the peoples’ man? Well, wonders, they say will never end. It happened that the Abacha’s Regime had doled out a whopping sum of money to our “Mr Perfect”. Well, I am not fabricating stories here. This fact is very well documented. The information came from no less a person than the late Wadas Nas, Abacha’s Minister for Special Duties.
If Rawlings rubbishes this fact, I challenge him to meet me personally to unravel the puzzle. I don’t know why NDC apparatchiks are always running away anytime I issue a challenge to them. The other day, I issued a challenge to President Mahama to debate me on his involvement in the death of his predecessor, but he chickened out. Today, I am issuing another one to ex-President Jaguar Rawlings.
The question is how did Rawlings get money to lead such a life of ostentation? See his flashy cars and exquisite taste! Do you know that Jaguar Joker Rawlings (Mr Recklessness) values his dogs more than human beings? Yes, I am not joking, but telling you the gospel truth. Do you know that in his country home where he has one of the greatest mansions in the whole of Africa, he has prevented his kinsmen from fetching water from the only stream in the village which serves as their source of drinking water? Why? Because he bathes his dogs in the stream! And this is a man who claims his ideology is to be people friendly. Recently, this “dabi dabi a ebeye yie” exhibited his disdain for the less fortunate in the society when he caused one of his kinsmen to be arrested for being the arrowhead of those who were protesting against Mr Recklessness commandeering of the only stream in the village for the exclusive use of his dogs. And this is the man people hail him as their inspirer! May God have mercy on us!
Is Jaguar Joker Rawlings (Mr Recklessness) a murderer? I wholeheartedly endorse the proposed obituary which a diehard member of the Nefarious Destructive Cancer has earmarked for the founder of his contraption, should the unexpected happens. It goes like this: “Herein lies the mortal remains of one of the world’s greatest sadists whose stock in trade is to rejoice at the misfortune of the less fortunate ones in the society. The masses put their trust in him but inhuman that he is, he continued to debase them until they eventually lose their humanity”.
Yes, Tony Aidoo, one of the acolytes the brutal regime of Rawlings created was right when he referred to the founder of his contraption as a murderer. If the crocodile comes from beneath the sea to tell us that the hippopotamus is dead, who am I to dispute that fact.
Expulsion of Ghanaians from Nigeria: Compare the Aliens Compliance Order by the Nigerian Government in the Eighties with the attack on black people in Libya around the same time and you will understand when I say that this “dabi dabi a ebeye yiye” is the greatest demagogue of all time. In the Nigeria case, Rawlings refused to open the Ghana side of the border with Togo with the excuse that it was an attempt to sabotage his regime for some of the deportees might be dissidents. The Republic of Benin on the other hand felt that with the Ghanaians side of the border closed, the deportees would be stranded on its territory and so closed its side of the border with Nigeria. Those who had crossed the Nigerian side of the border at Seme were not allowed into Benin, neither could they go back to Nigeria. The Togolese also felt that if the massive forced migration of Ghanaians was not checked, the expelled aliens would be stranded on her territory and so closed her side of the border with the Republic of Benin. That was how a large number of Ghanaian nationals perished on the land between Nigeria and Benin Republic and Benin and Togo.
Rawlings always plays to the gallery. Yet when his own friend, the “executed” Colonel Gaddhafi “expelled” citizens from black Africa from Libya, Jaguar Joker Rawlings, (Mr Recklessness) rushed there in the Presidential Jet to “evacuate” a whole lot of them to Ghana. You see the contradiction there? The answer is simple. It was an election year, and he wanted his Government to be seen as a populist one. So, you can see for yourself how a callous and sadist dictator like Rawlings could masquerade as the savior of the oppressed whilst in reality he has no regard for the sanctity of human life.
Is Rawlings (Mr Recklessness) sincere? Do you recollect the panel that indicted Kojo Tsikata over his role in the murder of the Three High Court Judges and the retired Army Officer? He set aside the verdict of the panel which his own regime had constituted. After all, wasn’t the key to the vehicle which was used to abduct the victims taken from his dressing table?
When the Commission on Human Rights under the then Emile Short indicted some of his Ministers of corrupt practices and self enrichment, didn’t his own Attorney General come out to say that there was not enough evidence to prosecute such Ministers? What happened when some policemen decided to be more adventurous by taking a cut of the largesse which Obed Asamoah, Rawlings Foreign Minister had kept under his bed? Come and see the foreign currencies – dollars, Pound Sterling, Yen, CFA, Deutch Marks, Kroner, Ruble staring at the policemen and invitingly daring them to take a plunge into the unknown. When the matter became public knowledge, what did Mr Recklessness and the NDC tell Ghanaians? They said it was the party’s funds! Does a Foreign Minister keep funds of a political party? And what example did they want to show the rest of the country? That we should not send our money to the bank but hoard them at home? Here is a man whose hands are tainted with corruption, who is the very embodiment of the word “corruption” coming out to accuse another of corruption!
What about Salifu Amankwaa? Here was somebody who used Gestapo tactics to bring residents of Accra into total subjugation. Salifu Amankwaa willfully tortured a creature of God to death. Rawlings (Mr Recklessness) set aside the judgement of the duly constituted court and the man walked the streets of Ghana a free person.
More killings: Listen to this self deluded messiah attempting to justify the indefensible. “We had no choice. We thought let 2 go, Acheampong and a certain Utuka, very corrupt Generals. They were sacrificed. It was not enough. Ladies and Gentlemen: Ten days later, we had to sacrifice 6 and some of the commanders were innocent good people, but it had to be done because the rage in the country was too high, too much”.
EI, Judas Rawlings, aka Mr Recklessness! Listen to the way he talked about a human being with utter contempt and detachment, devoid of any feelings – and a certain Utuka. The expression “and a certain Utuka” connotes the impression that he did not know much about the Utuka he speaks with so much disdain. If he and his rapacious murderers did not know much about that Utuka, how did they conclude that he and Acheampong were corrupt? Listen to the callous way he put it across. “They were sacrificed”. What does that tell you about this masquerade called Rawlings?
The brutal murder of Okatakyie Akwasi Amankwaa Afrifa: There are rumours which have gained currency that Rawlings ordered that the brutal murder of General Akwasi Amankwaa Afrifa, former Head of State be filmed and the tape sent to him and that when he (Mr Recklessness) finished watching the film with his most trusted allies over bottles of champagne, he muttered to all present “the infidel is finished”. That is the Rawlings for you – rejoicing over the murder of a fellow Head of State.
Did Victor Bannerman die in an accident or he was murdered? Victor Bannerman was Rawlings’ nemesis in the military. The latter died in a mysterious plane crash and till date, no official report has been published on it. He and his brother in law, one Buleari were sent on a reconnaissance mission to the Western border at a time a wedding was taking place at the Air force Officers Mess. Bannerman’s plane crashed first around 3pm at a forest about 6 miles from the Kumasi Airport.
“How come an experienced pilot like Bannerman would go on a flight without first ensuring that the pin that held the pilot’s seat in the place was removed”, Mike Adjei asks rhetorically. He supplies the answer himself. “It looked like the technician who should have removed the pin while the pilot was strapped in his seat did not do so, thus making it impossible to eject. Buleari and Bannerman who died in different bomber jets were married to two sisters.
Mistakes of Victor Bannerman: Mistake number one was that he took the Academy Cane and the Best Flying Cadet Award during their passing out parade. These were awards Rawlings (Mr Recklessness) had wanted for himself. Mistake number two was that Bannerman was selected to undertake the course which Rawlings was originally penciled down to attend. So, you see the motive was there.
Mr Recklessness’ reckless utterances on President Mills’s death: If one recollects the utterances of Rawlings on the death of former President, Mills, one would quickly jump to the conclusion that he Rawlings was an accessory to the crime of murder. He said it loud and clear that the death of the former President has improved the chances of the NDC in the December, 2012 Elections. What other evidence do you need to haul this “power Miss Road” and “dabi dabi a ebeye yiye” before the International Tribunal for Crimes against humanity.
Rawlings (Mr Recklessness) is the embodiment of evil: I cannot understand why human beings created in the image of God could concoct stories against their fellow human beings. Just think about the Ya Na’s tape which was rejected in evidence by his own contraption, the Nefarious Destructive Cancer which he himself had founded. I think Alhaji Bature’s assessment of Rawlings is enough to tell Ghanaians that Rawlings is the devil who must be chained at all times.
Bature’ assessment of Rawlings: Bature tells us that late President Mills refusal to give Rawlings money to treat his Parkinson’s disease was the cause of the latter constant attacks against the former President. Another point which should not be forgotten is the fact that he Rawlings has a domineering personality. Whoever went against his dictates was bound to incur his wrath. Remember what Kufuor told us about the early days of his administration. He said Rawlings felt he could manipulate him on how to run his government. In the early days of his administration, the bully, Mr Recklessness was asking him (Kufuor) to meet him (Rawlings) at different places. He later decided to be his own self and stopped obeying his orders. And that earned him the wrath of Mr Rawlings.
What about Mills? We all remember that before the 2008 Elections which brought into power John Evans, many Ghanaians thought that the latter would be a poodle of Mr Recklessness. Rawlings himself thought so. But when the late President Mills, like Kufuor decided to chart his own path, Rawlings took offence and started attacking him (Mills) left and right. He saw corruption under Mills’s Government but sees nothing wrong with that of current President Mahama, possibly because the latter might have given him money to treat his Parkinson disease. Between ex President Mills and current President Mahama, who is more corrupt? We have been told by a top member of the NDC that the late President set up a Committee to investigate the shady deals of John Mahama in the purchase of some air crafts for the Ghana Armed Forces. And what has Rawlings said about that? Nothing! Why? Because Rawlings is the very embodiment of corruption itself!
History will judge Rawlings (Mr Recklessness) harshly. He has forgotten that after almost two decades in office, he and the Government he headed could not boast of an economy that was a model of efficiency. Inflation was the order of the day, black marketeering was rife, the crime rate was high and there appeared to be no solution in sight. Corruption in high places seemed incurable, productivity was unimpressive and the infrastructural base was poor.
Ex President Kufuor’s Legacy: John Agyekum Kufuor emancipated Ghanaians from a country he Rawlings (Mr. Recklessness) had held to ransom for his own personal gain. The latter’s unending tantrums against his progressive and pragmatic successor have now assumed demonic colouration and its time this toothless bulldog with an oversized ego was given a dose of his own medicine.
Conclusion: Jaguar Joker Rawlings aka Mr Recklessness sees himself as better than ex President Kufuor, but he is not. Mr Rawlings is unprincipled, a pathological liar whose language is devoid of sobriety and decorum. Judging by the untold hardship Rawlings (Mr Recklessness) inflicted on his fellow human beings in the country it might not be wrong to state that people like Rawlings who have fed fat on the toils of others and been playing a yoyo with people’s lives should not be allowed to live amongst decent human beings. Hades is prepared for such sick wicked people and that is where Rawlings should be.
Daniel Danquah Damptey (0243715297) Damptey_daniel@yahoo.com)